This invention relates generally to a connector for mass termination of flat multi-wire cable and more particularly to a connector which is programmable in that any signal wire or signal wire position can be selectively grounded and which terminates the cable without spreading the individual wires, thereby maintaining centerline compatibility with other standard connectors, and further allowing for two ground wires for each signal wire.
There are currently available connectors for effecting mass terminations of the wires of a flat transmission cable. One such connector employs one or more rows of contacts mounted in a housing bed with the contacts of each row staggered with respect to the contacts of the other row or rows. Each contact has a slot which opens onto the top end of the contact to receive a cable wire therein. It has not, however, been possible to maintain the cable wire centerlines in the connector. On the contrary, it has been necessary to spread the cable wires apart so they can be inserted in the slots in the contacts, thereby losing centerline compatibility with many existing connectors already extensively used in industry.
In another prior art connector, the centerline spacing of the cable wires is maintained. Such connector comprises two rows of pairs of elongated contacts which are secured at first ends in a housing to form two rows of female receptacles for the reception of terminal posts or the like and opening onto a first side of the connector housing. Tabs positioned at the other ends of the contacts of each pair of contacts extend through another side of the housing where they are bent over to lie substantially flat on the surface of said other side of the housing.
The flat cable to be terminated is dressed with a short section thereof being stripped of insulation along a short distance thereof in such a manner that a short section of unstripped cable extends from the stripped portion to the end of the cable being terminated. The stripped portion of the cable is positioned over the tabs of the contacts and the individual wires forced into individual notches formed in a ledge extending outwardly from the said other side of the housing, which notches are formed in two levels with the notches of the second and deeper level receiving the wires to be grounded. A cutting tool then cuts the signal wires and the remaining uncut grounded wires are then folded back over a bus bar which has been positioned along the said other surface of the housing. The bus bar has fingers extending therefrom to be individually positioned over one of the tabs of said two rows of contacts.
A bar type heating element is then brought down upon the fingers extending from the bus bar to solder the signal wires and the fingers to the tabs extending from the two rows of pairs of contacts. Simultaneously, a second bar type heating element is brought down over the bus bar to solder the wires to be grounded to said bus bar. The fingers extending from the bus bar over the tabs of the contacts can be removed prior to the assembly of the connector, and the soldering thereof, so that only preselected ones of the signal wires will be grounded. Subsequently, the main portion of the cable, which is unstripped, is folded across the top of the bus bar which has ground wires soldered thereto. A cap is then locked over the folded over cable and the connector housing to provide a strain relief function.
A principal problem involved in the prior art structure described above is the necessity for two soldering operations which adds appreciably to the cost thereof and which makes field application of the connector very difficult.